18 February 2007

This used to be Craig House, an old people's home in Craig Road, but soon it will be the Denes, "a select collection of contemporary apartments and townhouses, where you can enjoy the quiet life only 10 miles from central London and within easy reach of Richmond and Kingston. "

This is Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic church located on the south west corner of Ham Common. It once featured in a French & Saunders sketch where it was used as a school and Dawn French took her child there, on the "school run" in an army tank, crushing other cars on the way.

The Cassel Hospital, based in lovely buildings in on the south side of Ham Common, is an important therapeutic community both historically and in its current form. It was the place where the late Tom Main put into practice his thinking about the therapeutic community way of working and it continues to operate a residential therapeutic community within the National Health Service operating on strongly psychoanalytic theoretical lines.

On the junction of Upper Ham Road and Ham Common (south-east corner of the Common) is this little refuge where people sit to enjoy the garden before joining the bustle of Ham Parade. It is maintained by local volunteers belonging to the Ham Amenities Group (HAG).

The shops on Ham Parade are the lively heart of the "village" (whereas Ham common is the tranquil heart). It's here that you can buy almost everything you need, eat out in the evening, get your hair cut, place your bets, recycle stuff, and bump into people you have not seen for ages.

Gordon House is typical of the Georgian houses that front onto Ham Common. It is nicely placed on the south-west side close to the pond and is strongly in contention for the claim to be the loveliest building on the Common.

13 February 2007

One of the themes of this blog is going to be bad parking and here we have a BMW driver who things it is ok to park on the pavement while he pops into the off license. Sadly his number plate is obscured by the flash (and he then came back to his car so I could not take another picture) but I hope to name-and-shame in future posts.